BLOG POST

3 Keys to Avoiding Work-from-Home Scams

The internet is rife with scammers preying on the elderly, stay-at-home moms, the unemployed, and… well, pretty much anyone!

We’ve heard a lot of stories from students who’ve dealt with work-at-home scams. If you don’t see ’em coming, they can really burn you! There are so many work-from-home scams — and scammers — that it’s downright hard to see the good stuff hiding in the gigantic sea of garbage.

Here are the ones that really get under my skin:

“Email processing” — it puts a new spin on envelope stuffing. You pay $25 to learn how to post the same ad you responded to and get other people to pay you $25. It’s ridiculous. When I see this posted by someone I know, I always jump to the comments immediately to let them know what a crock it is. Call me crazy, but I’m just being a good friend.

“Home typing” — another “selling nothing” scam. You pay money and receive a disk and a set of instructions telling you to create similar ads to get people to pay you for the same instructions!!

“Just Call This 1-900 Number For More Information…” — this one is the worst! There is no real opportunity. The 1-900 numbers make their money by getting you — and keeping you — on the phone!

So other than the obviousness of the above three known work-from-home scams, how can you know something’s a scam? How can you separate the facts from the crap? Here are a few tips to help you do just that.

Key #1: Make sure they don’t make lofty promises.

It’s often a sure sign of a scam when a program guarantees you’ll make money by purchasing their program. With my program, while I do guarantee you’ll have all the tools, resources, practice, and support you’ll need to work as a transcriptionist, I will never, ever put a blanket guarantee you’ll earn money simply by taking the course. That’s the key. Taking a course — any course, for that matter — will never automagically turn you into an overnight money-making success. I’m not a wizard. Building a career working from home is bona fide hard work, and anyone promising you the opposite of that is probably trying to get your money in the slickest way possible. Stay away.

Key #2: Look for a real person, then make contact with them.

If you’re considering a work-from-home program or opportunity of any sort, whether it’s an eBook, a course, or even some kind of franchise, make sure you get to know the person behind the product. Before purchasing, always send an email or make a call (if possible) to the person in charge. I actually ask people to email me in our free mini-course, and I get tons of emails each day from people who are just floored by this. But to me, it’s part of the job (my favorite part, actually!). My door is open, and anyone trying to sell you something as pivotal as an online course should always be available to help. If you don’t get an answer, there is the possibility your email went to Spam. Look the person up on Facebook, find them on LinkedIn, whatever you need to do, but get in touch with them. They should make contacting them very easy, too — if it’s hard or impossible to find a contact form, that’s not a good sign. If you email several times with no response, that’s likewise not a good sign of a professional person behind the snazzy website.

Key #3: Read the warnings — and there should be honest warnings.

Working at home isn’t for everyone. It’s hard work. If you’re on a site that tells you working from home is the ticket to everlasting life or freedom, get off that site! Scammers prey on people by painting their product to be the perfect picture of the easy way out; they want you to believe it’s the magic pill. On the other hand, if you find a site that’s up front with what they offer, includes actual warnings and “disqualifiers” (i.e. “You know you’re not a good fit for this if…” or “You actually have to work to be successful” statements), and clearly isn’t trying to hide anything, you’ve likely landed on something worthwhile. Verify you aren’t being promised the moon (Key #1), and check to see if your emails will get answered (Key #2) — then move forward if you feel good about it.

Tying It All Together

Internet scams are everywhere, but there are worthwhile opportunities, too. Knowing what to look for to determine whether something is a scam is critical to avoiding heartbreak and wasted cash — and it’s super helpful in identifying legitimate work-at-home information as well.

Your Turn!

Have you been conned out of money by a work-at-home scammer? Do you have additional tips on avoiding work-from-home scams? Share in the comments below!

Looking for legitimate, all-inclusive training for general transcription?

Transcribe Anywhere has it. But don’t enroll in the full program just yet — take our free mini-course first. That will help us get to know each other a little better, and it’ll help you ensure you’re making the right decision.

Reader Interactions

Comments

Awhile back, I responded to an ad on Odesk for a payroll processor. I was hired with only an email interview – that should have set off a red flag. After that, they sent me money to buy the blank checks and envelopes and set me up on their payroll processing software. So far, so good. However, after just a couple of days, I began to notice that the same people were getting paid by different companies. Sometimes, I would get mailing labels for people but no payment amount or payment amounts but not mailing labels. Then I was instructed by my supervisor to mail the packets of payment envelopes using different FedEx drop boxes. That’s when I asked a few questions about the business, was cussed at, and I resigned. It was a front for a gambling ring!

I am so glad that had saw this. I was offered a job on Upwork.com. without an email interview. And it is so similar to this. Print and send payroll checks. He had offered me $65/hour. Of course at 21 I was excited that I could even be offered a job so simple for that much. But I reread the email. It just seemed off so I trusted my gut and started to do research and could find the comapnt name but nothing to do with payroll. If it wasn’t for your comment who k owes what I could have gotten into. Thank god I canceled my order with amazon for a check printer and the supplies. But again thanks to you

The only bad experience that comes to mind is Thumbtack. I signed up for Thumbtack. Once I paid some fees for extra advertising or something like that (can’t recall the exact terminology) I got FLOODED with offers for transcription jobs. The problem was, I had put transcription way, way down on the list of jobs I was looking for, so I wasn’t really keen on doing transcription as my number one skill. One person wanted to talk off-line (off of Thumbtack) and make his own deal. He and his wife kept calling me and emailing me directly. Two other ones wanted to hire me for a permanent full-time job (again, NOT what I was looking for), without even meeting or talking to me in person! I ended up cancelling my Thumbtack account, and got a partial refund.

Does anyone know anything about Go Transcript? For a transcription company they don’t seem to have a good grasp of English grammar. This does not instill confidence. What do they stand to gain exactly from people signing up? I don’t understand the point of setting up such a sophisticated scam. (If it is one). I passed their test and am now getting emails to asking me to start working on their audios. But I don’t feel to safe about it.

I do transcriptions for GoTranscript. It isn’t a scam, though it doesn’t pay much. Yes the owner of the company has not so great English but the editors who rate your work are different, so it doesn’t matter to me that the owner doesn’t have great English. I am a beginner at transcription so I am using GT for some practice and then once my skills are better I will try to move on to a different company. But I have made a bit of money from GT so I can tell you it’s not a scam. And you don’t have to pay anything. GT is good for beginner transcriptionists.

I just emailed you and signed up for the free mini course as I am very interested in starting a new career in transcription. I talk more about my story in my email. I came across your site while searching online for transcription information. My research is extensive and thorough as there are so many scams out there. I’m not interested in a get rich quick situation. It doesn’t exist. I’m interested in learning a trade so I can apply my skills working from home as a qualified and successful transcriptionist. How did you go about getting started in this field and landing your first job? Can I be successful in general transcription vs medical transcription? Is one more high demand than the other?

I don’t recommend medical transcription as a great career choice. Although I started my career as an MT, the demand for those services has decreased rather dramatically with the adoption of the medical record. I no longer offer those services and I certainly don’t teach it. You’ll learn more through the mini-course.

I’ve been looking into some freelance transcription work and one thing I’ve noticed is clients requesting samples of your work. How is one supposed to offer such samples when one is expected to keep anything transcribed confidential? Is this something that would be covered in the full course?

In my many years of experience, no one has ever asked for a sample of my work. How would one provide that? Besides the point of it being confidential, unless you also sent the audio or video, it just wouldn’t tell the potential client much about your skill level. You should, of course, expect to be tested. Another good tactic is to offer new clients a few minutes free as a courtesy and to see if you’re a good fit to work with each other. All of these things are covered in our courses.

I just finished the 7 day GT Mini Course, as well as the 4 day LT Mini Course. As I stated to you in one of my prior emails, I am looking forward to choosing LT as my path, but I want to take the GT course as well.
If I take the GT course, pass it and am certified, can I then move on to take the LT Course at a lower price, by submitting the receipt for the GT course? Just trying to budget how much each or both will cost me before I get started.
I am excited and can’t wait to learn this new skill.

Yes, you’ll receive the discounted price for both courses, even if you enroll in only GT first. When you finish GT, just email me for your unique discount code. I’m looking forward to having you join us!

My story starts out on Upwork. I’ve had success and scams on the site, so I don’t deny it’s use and validity as a whole, but like any employment opportunity, if it’s too good to be true, it probably is. Here we go…

So I got an invitation to interview for an online data processing position for Ameriprise. Immediately I’m excited because I have friends in finance and I know they’re a large, reputable company. I’m thinking I may have just found some very gainful employment with stability. I respond to the ad and we discuss my joining the company. Then the interviewer suggests we finish the interview process on…google hangouts? Yes, you read that correctly.

Well, I blew right through that first red flag and we attempted to connect on google hangouts for our first interview. I was up bright and early at 7 am my time to begin. Now, I’m dressed and pressed and ready for a video chat because if someone is going to offer me a job from home for the $21 an hour she originally suggested, I’m thinking we want some face time. Well, the “interviewer” never bothered to show up for our first interview. Instead, I hear from her over 4 hours later asking to reschedule. By now I’m getting suspicious.

So, I reschedule knowing that my gut is telling me this meal ticket is foul. We had our first interview a few days later. However, by now I had called Ameriprise and had researched exactly who I was talking to. Apparently I was talking to the Vice President of Human Resources at said company. I’m no genius, but I felt that an entry level data entry specialist was a bit low on the totem pole to be getting personal treatment from the VP of this large department. Still, I persisted.

The woman, if it indeed was a woman, continued to discuss terms, duties, and compensation. All fine. Except when we discussed whether or not I would be hired, she took 5 minutes to speak to her “team” and came back and told me I was on board. I had gotten the job. Here’s where my bells really started ringing. Next, she told me the company would provide me with the equipment I needed and that they would pay for it, but I would buy it. The only thing I needed to do was send a bank statement to them that validated that I had received the funds. A bank statement from MY bank account.

I ended the call politely, not making a big deal about it and immediately called Ameriprise. Here’s where things got frustrating. They were not hiring data entry specialists at all. Nor would the VP of human resources be conducting interviews with me. I know this because I spoke to a representative in human resources. I explained the situation and the representative told me he was 99% sure it was a scam. This, of course, I already knew. The call to Ameriprise was simply my confirmation. The representative told me he was impressed by my research and efforts to discover the truth of the matter and asked me to check on the employment opportunities currently offered at Ameriprise because I was the sort of thinker they wanted at the company (very flattering, but I’m not a financial adviser unfortunately).

So the interviewer and I had set up another appointment. I was online waiting for her to contact me for the interview and she didn’t even care to message me until roughly 2 hours later. She then proceeds to chastise me for not being on time at our meeting. She then tells me that she doesn’t desire this quality for people she’s hiring. I simply told her that she wasn’t hiring. She seemed confused. I then basically exposed her by telling her I had contacted Ameriprise and verified that she was not the individual she said she was and that there are no data entry opportunities available currently at the company and I had reported her.

I never heard from this person again. I never would have given them my personal account number, but this is an example of how people can promise you something and because it looks good, you entertain it. I’m a skeptical person by nature, but others may not be so. Hopefully this helps someone.

My well-grounded Depression-era parents taught me and my siblings early on the old saying we’ve all heard a thousand times: “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” It’s especially true on the Internet.

I agree that the internet is full of scams. What we do is give people real skills to earn a real income. There’s no MLM or selling useless products. There’s no “easy” button here either. It takes commitment to practice and study to become skilled and qualified to offer transcription services. I don’t encourage anyone to enroll who won’t enjoy this type of work or has unrealistic expectations. We don’t make false promises.

I encountered a very similar experience with Samsung as Josh did with Ameriprise a little over a year ago. They interviewed me on google hangouts, they stayed in contact via email, they offered to pay for the software and equipment by sending a check by certified mail.

The most believable part was in the beginning when I was first contacted by email. There was a job posting on one of the many work-at-home sites I was signed up with that had the same information about the job offered that was contingent upon completion of their two day training.

They were very picky about sending an ATM receipt after deposit of their check, waiting for instructions where to purchase the software and equipment, then wait for instructions to begin training the following week. They even had me wait 5 minutes before offering the position to start. They had it all lined up to make it look legit.

I always had to ask the same question more than once before receiving some sort of excuse as to why it took a while to respond — never answering my question. Eventually, I confronted this person very bluntly. I decided to hold him accountable for each and every detail he outlined for me to follow that he began not following at all. I never heard from him again, which I expected.

I thank God for the “bad” check they sent that was rejected at the ATM, flagged as “fraud” almost immediately, and was confirmed inside the bank by the bank manager that it appeared to be a work-at-home scam. The bank manager directed me to Compass Bank where the check was issued to confirm it was a fraudulent check, so I drove directly there. The minute the manager there saw the check he said, “This is definitely a fraudulent check. We do not even issue cashier’s checks like this one.”

I gladly agreed to leave the check with him for proper investigation and left relieved I never paid a cent or ended up owing the thousands of dollars spent from the check, if the check went through, when it was found fraudulent a few days later. I was also mad at myself for even beginning to believe in this job. I had thought I was really good at spotting a scam before that happened by doing a lot of research. Emails still seem to be the most common place fraud begins when you respond. I immediately spam the email when received with similarities.

Wow! I’m sorry that happened to you, but at least you didn’t lose any money and caught onto their scheme. It’s an example of an out and out fraud operation. Anyone offering to send you money to “buy equipment” should be suspect. Unfortunately, there are less obvious fraudsters out there as well who will sell you a dream that they know you’ll never succeed with and they just don’t care. It’s all designed to simply take your money. Buyer beware!